Speech number Forty-Eight
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The house is small and the respected gentlemen are uncomfortable . . . may they be successful and enjoy good health. I feel it necessary to remind the young people, both inside Iran and abroad, of a few things.
A while after the appearance of Islam, it was the wont of different groups and scholars to devote all of their attention to the spiritual aspects of Islam, to those Qur'anic verses and traditions which were concerned with spiritual matters, with self-purification and things beyond this physical world. The Holy Qur'an contains many verses pertaining to
spiritual matters, that is, to that aspect of the human being which is of the unseen world. For a while this was the situation and scant attention, if indeed any at all, was paid to the social and political laws that exist in Islam.
Then gradually some groups appeared who began to address themselves to social and political affairs and issues of the day, but they took matters to the extreme, they concentrated solely on social and political issues and the rules for government and paid no heed to spiritual matters. So there now exists a group of people who concentrate solely on these matters, just as up until some time ago the other group, which comprised scholastics, philosophers, gnostics and Sufis, looked only at one side of Islam and spoke only of its spiritual aspects and invited people to these - some of them even strove to change the meaning of those verses and traditions which dealt with matters of this world, with social and political affairs, into a spiritual one and tried to convince everyone else to see them in the same light.
This was unfortunate for Islam, for to concentrate only on spiritual matters, to ignore those verses of the Qur'an which pertain to social affairs, to disregard those verses and traditions which are to do with the government of Islam, with the politics of Islam, with social affairs and with reforming this world was tantamount to paying no heed to Islam. This group has only understood one aspect of Islam and has ignored the other which deals with worldly affairs, for Islam comprises this aspect also, it is concerned with all matters that relate to the human being. So the fact that those belonging to this group strove to give a spiritual meaning to all the verses of the Qur'an and the traditions which pertained to social and worldly matters constituted a blow to Islam, for they concentrated only on the inner or secret (batin) meanings of Islam and ignored its external, obvious (zahir) meanings.
Now the blow to Islam comes from the fact that our young people, our intellectuals and scientists who have studied the natural sciences are striving to give all the traditions and the Qur'anic verses, even those pertaining to spiritual matters, a temporal and mundane meaning and they are neglecting spiritual matters. This group of people are both mindful and heedless of Islam, they have read about one aspect of it and have neglected the other. Neither of these two groups has understood Islam properly. Islam's call is restricted neither to the spiritual nor the material, it contains both aspects. The Holy Qur'an was revealed to train and develop the human being in all his dimensions.
If you consider the human being, you see that in the beginning he grows and develops no differently from a vegetable organism. A date seed, for example, or any other seed, is planted in soil which nourishes it and makes it grow. Soil is its special place where it grows. Animals too begin life as a seed, they have their special place where they are nourished and that is the womb. If at any time another place is created which has the same qualities and can perform the same function as the womb, then it is possible that their sperm can develop there, this applies even to a human being. So in the beginning man is no different from a plant, he grows just as a plant grows, and although he has his special place with certain qualities and the plant has its, nevertheless they are like one another in that they have both been planted and this planted seed begins to grow through the power that God the Blessed and Exalted has placed in the earth and the womb.
So at first they have this in common. However, the seed which is cultivated in the soil develops into a vegetable organism, remains such and produces fruit of the same type, whereas the seeds of animals, including man, gradually develop beyond the plant stage and find an animal spirit while still in the womb. They become distinct from vegetable organisms, but they are all animals in that they have sense organs, can move and possess an animal spirit. Animals are distinct from plants in another aspect and that is that at the required time they are born into this world and are cut off from their place of development (the womb). If a plant is separated from its place of growth (the soil), it will die, but animals are cut off from the womb when that aspect about them which they have in common with plants has been fully developed and they take on animal characteristics and no longer need the womb.
So they enter this world as animals sharing common characteristics: they eat, sleep and have the same desires. They are all animals, all the same, bearing no difference in their animal characteristics, it is in their degree of perception that they differ from one another. Monkeys have a higher level of understanding than other animals. Man is distinct among the animals in that he can advance further, he is different from them in both his perceptive capability and in the extremes to which this can reach. Animals can perceive only to a certain degree beyond which they cannot pass. Man on the other hand is almost unlimited in his perceptive ability and his capacity to be trained.
Man is a microcosm of this world and more. He has things in common with all that exists in this world, from the beginning of his existence up until the stage where he is distinguished from them, he has things in common with all animal, plant and mineral life. But he has something more, he possesses the power of reason and a higher power which the others do not possess. If man were meant to develop only to the degree that the other animals do, then there would be no need for prophets. What would we need prophets for if man were simply meant to come into this world and live an animal existence, to eat and sleep like an animal until death? Man needs prophets because he is not the same as other animals, he does not have an animalistic limit which cannot be surpassed, his limit is beyond that of animals and he can attain a stage higher than the animal stage, a stage beyond reason (`aql), until he reaches a stage that we cannot explain, although this final stage has been described by some as "annihilation" (fana) or "god-like," among other interpretations it has been given. So man needs prophets, because the training of a human being in all his dimensions, his physical, spiritual and intellectual dimensions and beyond these cannot be left up to ordinary men, for they are not aware of all a human being's needs and do not know how to educate a human being in the metaphysical. If you put all of man's abilities together, you see that he can understand only this world and the attributes of nature, even then he has not discovered all that nature has to offer and although in recent years many of the doors to nature's secrets have been unlocked, many more remain for posterity to find the key.
Whatever man discovers up until the end of time will be of this natural realm, of this world, of this side of the coin. Those things that man can understand, that are within the bounds of his understanding of nature, lie within the world of nature. Even if we suppose that one day man discovers everything there is to know about natural phenomena, his understanding will still be confined to the realms of nature, it will not have extended beyond. He will have gained no knowledge of the other side of the coin. If man tries till the end of time he can only come to understand the relationship that exists between things in nature, the cause and effect. He can be trained and educated but in the end he will only discover the nature of this tangible world with all its attributes and its relationships. For example, he may understand how an earthquake affects the earth, when it will strike, he may determine the results and effects, how long it will last, and whether it will occur vertically or horizontally. He may understand all of this, the relationship between the nature of man and all other things, and we may suppose that there is nothing left for him to uncover, but his knowledge will still be confined to the realms of nature, he will not have stepped further than this and will not have understood what lies beyond this.
Thus, there is a group of natural scientists and philosophers who, because they cannot comprehend the metaphysical, because they cannot sense it or see it, have denied its existence, denied it without proof. They have said that because they have not seen it, they do not know of it and because it has not come under their knife, they can say that this non-material intellect, for example, does not exist. But it is wrong for a person to say something "does not exist," he must say "I do not know if it exists or not." There are things of which man knows nothing. There are those who will say: "I have reached this stage and of this much I am sure, but I don't know about the rest." Denial stems from ignorance. You do not comprehend everything that exists in the world so you should not deny its existence. This group of people have reached a certain level of understanding, and even if they were to uncover all the secrets of nature their understanding would still be confined to the realms of nature.
This understanding can attend to the human being's material desires, that is, our material requirements. When nature in all its aspects has been discovered, when all the powers of the natural world and the relationships that exist between the elements of nature have been discovered, even then only our material requirements will have been met, no more than this. Our material requirements vary according to our level of development, to what has been discovered so far. Travel nowadays calls for the use of an aeroplane, whereas in days gone by man travelled by camel, and in the future he will travel by something more advanced, but it still belongs to the realms of nature and is satisfying man's material needs.
If man were confined to the bounds of a natural dimension, possessing no other, then there would be no need for something to be sent from the unseen to train his spiritual dimension, because this would not exist. But man is a reality independent of this natural world. Nature itself implies an existence beyond this natural realm. For the human being possesses another dimension besides his natural dimension, and, according to the proofs which are established in philosophy, something beyond nature exists in the human being and man possesses a potential non-material intellect which will later be actualised. The training of that dimension, which is man's spiritual dimension, should be in the hands of one who has knowledge of the Hereafter, a true knowledge, a knowledge of the relationship between man and the metaphysical, one who has this level of perception. This is a task which does not belong to ordinary men, for they do not have this level of perception, ordinary men can only understand matters which pertain to this natural world, whatever can be put under the microscope; the metaphysical, however, cannot be seen under a microscope, it requires different means.
The relationship between man and the celestial world is hidden from man. However, God the Blessed and Exalted, who is the creator of everything, gave knowledge of it through divine revelation to some individuals who had attained spiritual perfection. They were sent amongst the people to develop and give instruction on this second dimension of man, and to educate them in this regard.
God the Blessed and Exalted needs neither us nor our training; whether we are polytheists or monotheists makes no difference to Him, He does not benefit from our being monotheists, we are the ones it makes a difference to. The prophets were sent to educate us, to give us the training we need for the next life, to ensure that we are trained in such a way that in the other world our life will be a blissful one. If man were not given this training and he entered the next world bearing the same animalistic nature he had in this world, then his life in the Hereafter would not be a happy one and he would be in a state of misery; man would enter into darkness in that world. The prophets came to gradually educate us away from this natural world - for otherwise we would remain as animals confined to this natural realm unable to perceive further than this - and, through the revelation of God Almighty, to give us the spiritual instruction needed to prepare us for the next world, so that when we are taken from this earthly existence to the Hereafter, our life there will be a happy one too. The whole point of the prophets' coming is to educate mankind, for man is capable of being educated and is superior to other animals, so that just as in this world - material circumstances permitting - he enjoys a happy life, the next too will be blissful for him.
The fact that man is capable of being trained is a kindness from God the Blessed and Exalted. The training which man receives from the prophets through divine revelation concerns those things that form a relationship between this world and the next. If we act upon that which we are instructed to do, it will have a hand in our spiritual training. We are told to do certain things and we do not know what the relationship is between us performing the ritual prayer (namaz), for example, and our happiness in the next world, but God does. Just as you and I who are not physicians do not understand what the connection is between the tablets the doctor prescribes and the illness, but a connection does exist, he who is knowledgeable in this field understands the relationship and tells us what we should do to cure our illness and we must follow his instructions.
The prophets, through the revelation of God the Almighty and Blessed, knew about the relationship that exists between our actions, our virtuous actions, and the other world. They were sent to tell us that if we perform certain virtuous acts, this will have a bearing on our life after death, and will train our spirit so that we will be happy when we enter the next world. Likewise, the commission of sin is like a poison which affects us in the metaphysical and spiritual world. If a human being eats something which is poisoned, he will suffer from the effects of that poison and may even perish. There are some sinful acts or beliefs which, if committed or believed in by man, are like a deadly poison taken in degrees, sometimes there is a cure but if taken persistently there is none. The prophets have informed us of these things, they have told us what to do and what not to do. Of course, some of their teachings pertain to the organisation and reformation of the material world and society, but there are many which concern the life beyond this one. For the human being is a creature of many dimensions, with many needs. The prophets came to answer these needs and teach man how to act in order to attain true happiness.
Therefore, neither of these two groups has understood Islam, neither the one which concentrates solely on spiritual matters ignoring social concerns nor the other which focuses on social and political matters, science and such things, disregarding spiritual matters. He who understands both the spiritual and material dimensions of Islam knows Islam. He who wants to have an understanding of Islam must look at both these aspects. He must try his best to understand the Qur'anic verses and injunctions which have been revealed and the traditions which have been passed down to us concerning spiritual matters, just as he must understand those verses, commands and traditions which are to do with regulating and setting right social, political and governmental matters. He who understands these two aspects, as much as man is indeed capable of understanding them, has understood Islam. Islam is not monastic like Christianity. Of course the Christian religion has been changed and that which is practised nowadays - with the emphasis being solely on spiritual matters - is not true Christianity. Neither is Islam like the religion of Moses, which concentrates mainly on temporal issues. The message and laws of Hazrat Moses (pbuh), who was one of the great prophets of the book, were of course for his time complete and sufficient to meet the needs of man then, but his book, along with that of Hazrat Jesus, has been lost. The content of the books which are in the hands of their followers today is proof itself that they are not the original Torah and Bible. Our book (the Qur'an), however, praise be to God, has been preserved throughout the years; even the Qur'an written by Imam `Ali in his own hand or that by Imam Sajjad are still extant. We don't have anything else which has remained totally unchanged except for the Qur'an. Islam was revealed to educate us and if we don't follow its teachings in all their aspects, then we will not learn.
So at the same time as you, our dear youth, involve yourselves in the pursuit of the natural sciences or in the jihads which are necessary for you to carry out - indeed a jihad which all of us must carry out now is to assist our Muslim brethren who are suffering in Iran, by at least propagating their cause - you must not neglect the supreme jihad, you must not disregard the spiritual aspects of Islam. For you are not a uni-dimensional being, you do not simply possess this dimension, you are not only men of jihad, or men of the natural sciences, you are human beings and a human being possesses both spiritual and material dimensions. Your material dimension is being satisfied by that which you are doing now, but you should struggle to satisfy your spiritual dimension also. You must take heed of all God's commands, a Muslim cannot say that he accepts the aspect of Islam which pertains to jihad, but not its spiritual aspects or vice versa. We should accept it all. A Muslim is he who accepts and acts upon all the teachings of the Most Noble Prophet. So, although you may find it difficult to understand the relationship that exists between the spirit and the outwardly apparent acts of worship that God commands us to perform in this world, you should not pay less attention to them. They are important for you. They are important for your life in the next world. You should continue with your jihads and your pursuit of the natural sciences and complete your work in these areas, but at the same time pursue spiritual matters so that you will find true happiness.
May God grant you all this happiness. May we all act upon our duties, one of which, now that a movement has begun in Iran and the people are relinquishing their lives, their wealth, their children and their dear ones for this cause, is for us who are over here to do our utmost to help them. You gentlemen should speak about the problems of Iran and propagate the Iranian cause amongst the people of the countries in which you reside at present, be they one of the European countries or America. Speak to your friends and your acquaintances, whenever you get together tell them about the problems in Iran and about the crimes committed by the Pahlavi dynasty and this Shah, who is more treacherous and criminal than all other past kings, or rather who is just as criminal as they were but more treacherous. This man is ruining Iran, he is destroying it, he is getting ready to leave the country and he wants to destroy it before he goes. Tell your American and European friends about this. Speak to your friends at the schools that you attend. God willing a wave of support will be created amongst these people and they will help the Iranian nation, and their governments, those which are just, may also help Iran to rid itself of this man. Please God the evil of this man and the foreigners who assist him will be uprooted from the land and Iran will be yours for you to administer yourselves.
1- In Neauphle-le-Chateau (situated twenty-five kilometres from Paris) two small houses had been placed at the disposal of Imam Khomeini and his entourage. Imam along with his family resided in house number one which was very small; house number two, which stood opposite, was set aside for gatherings and the use of Iranian students and members of Imam's office. It was in this house that Imam held prayer gatherings. Another building was rented and used as a hostel where students and others visiting Imam could rest. This hostel was administered by Mahdi Araqi (who was later martyred) and because of a shortage of space, sometimes twenty or thirty people had to sleep in one room. Those visiting Imam could stay here for a period of two days and nights. Imam was very particular about how religious funds were spent and he would not allow the rent for this building to be paid from moneys given as sahm-i imam for charitable disbursement, instead it was paid by those Iranians whose financial situation allowed them to do so. 2- Fana (Ar.) means extinction, cessation, annihilation, passing away. As a technical term in Islamic mysticism it is used to indicate a stage in the mystical experience in which all man's imperfections and earthly ties are annihilated or extinguished, and he is absorbed into the Deity losing consciousness of the self and those things which impeded his spiritual perfection. To put it another way, fana means that man "dies to himself" so that he may be "born in God." 3- It is the world of essence (dhat), attributes (sifat) and actions (af'al). Islamic philosophers believe in four worlds or four beginnings: the world of nature or mortals; the world of fancy or angels; the rational world or the world of dominion; and the world of the godhead or the divine world. 4- A French physician once said: "I will not believe in the existence of the spirit until I discover it with my scalpel." 5- A number of copies of the Qur'an ascribed to Imam `Ali (pbuh) can be found in libraries and museums throughout Iran. They include: a copy in Imam Riza's shrine in Mashhad - written in Kufic writing on parchment and beginning with Sura Hud (the Prophet Hud) and ending with the final verses of the Sura Kahf (the Cave) - at the end of which appears the inscription: "Written by `Ali ibn Abi Talib." Another copy can be found in the Amir al Mu'minin library in Najaf written in the Kufic style and at the end of which this sentence: "Written by `Ali ibn Abi Talib in the fortieth year after hijra," appears. The Iran Bastan museum houses a copy written in Kufic on parchment at the end of which we read: "Written and illuminated by `Ali ibn Abi Talib." A copy of the Qur'an ascribed to Imam Sajjad (pbuh) and written from verse 180 of Sura Baqara (the Heifer) until the end of the book is in Imam Riza's shrine in Mashhad. It is written in the Kufic style on parchment made from deer skin. The name of `Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn `Ali ibn Abi Talib appears on this copy. 6- That is, the struggle against the appetitive soul.
